Organic View - Winter 2009

The Organic Revolution

The Organic Revolution:
How We Can Stop Global Warming

"Let us not talk falsely now, for the hour is getting late."
-Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower

Beyond the gloom and doom of the climate crisis, there
lies a powerful and regenerative grassroots solution: organic food,
farming, and ranching. Even as politicians and the powerful fossil
fuel lobby drag their heels and refuse to acknowledge that we have
about ten years left of business-as-usual before we irreversibly destroy
the climate and ourselves, there is a powerful, largely unrecognized
life-force spreading its roots underground.

An army of organic farmers,
ranchers, conservationists, and backyard gardeners (supported by millions
of organic consumers) are demonstrating that we can build a healthy
alternative to industrial agriculture and Food Inc. Our growing organic
movement is proving that we can not only feed the world with healthy
food, but also reverse global warming, by capturing and sequestering
billions of tons of climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases in the soil,
through plant photosynthesis, composting, cover crops, rotational grazing,
wetlands preservation, and reforestation.

The heretofore unpublicized
good news on climate change, according
to the Rodale Institute and other soil scientists, is that transitioning
from chemical, water, and energy-intensive industrial agriculture practices
to organic farming and ranching on the world's 3.5 billion acres of
farmland and 8.2 billion acres of pasture or rangeland can sequester
7,000 pounds per acre of climate-destabilizing CO2 every year, while
nurturing healthy soils, plants, grasses, and trees that are resistant
to drought, heavy rain, pests, and disease. Organic farms and ranches
can provide us with food that is much more nutritious than industrial
farms and ranches - food filled with vitamins, anti-oxidants, and essential
trace minerals, free from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), pesticides,
antibiotics, and sewage sludge.

In 2006, US carbon dioxide pollution from fossil
fuels was estimated at nearly 6.5 billion tons, approximately 25% of
the world's total. If a 7,000 lb/CO2/ac/year sequestration rate were
achieved on all 434 million acres of cropland in the US, nearly 1.6
billion tons of carbon dioxide would be sequestered per year, mitigating
close to one quarter of the country's total fossil fuel emissions.
If pastures and rangelands were converted to organic practices, we
would be well on our way to reversing global warming.

We need an organic
revolution in ranching and livestock production, as well as farming
and forestry. We must drastically reduce meat overproduction (77% of
all US agriculture resources are devoted to raising animals or animal
feed), and over-consumption (a leading cause of obesity, heart disease
and cancer) and ban methane-belching factory farms. As the Rodale Institute
points out, organic livestock practices, (rotational grazing, manure
management, methane capture for biogas production, improved feeds and
feed additives) can drastically reduce livestock-related emissions
and, because of the massive acreage currently devoted to livestock
production (nearly 2.5x greater than croplands), can safely sequester
approximately 60% of the total greenhouse gases that humans, animals,
cars, and industry are pumping out every year.

This Organic Revolution,
or "Great Sequestering," made possible by a global grassroots movement
with the power to transform the marketplace and public policy, is perhaps
the only short-term solution at hand that can buy us the precious time
we need to radically reduce energy use and greenhouse pollution and
build a green economy. Although politicians and the coal and utilities
industry claim that sequestration of massive carbon dioxide emissions
from coal-fired power plants is on the horizon, there is little or
no scientific evidence to back this up. Sequestration of CO2 in the
soils of organic farms and ranches, on the other hand, is a proven
fact.

Before carbon-sequestering forests and grasslands were ravaged
by chemical-intensive industrial agriculture and forestry, organic
matter generally composed 6-10% of the soil volume, three-six times
the 1-3% levels typical of today's industrial agriculture soils. In
other words, taxpayer subsidized, chemical-based industrial agriculture
and forestry, factory farms, and unrestricted grazing have turned the
earth's soil (which still contains three times as much carbon as the
entire amount of CO2 in the atmosphere) from being a climate-stabilizing
carbon sink into a massive and dangerous source of global warming.

Given our escalating climate emergency, the burning question is how
do we move organics in the US from being the 4% alternative in the
marketplace to being the norm, and organic acreage from being 1% of
total cultivated land to the majority of farmland, pasture, and rangeland?
We must sound the alert, offer practical solutions and rapidly transform
public consciousness and policy. But the Via Organica, the road to
get there, will be long and arduous. The majority of Americans must
stop buying chemical, GMO, globally sourced and so-called "natural"
food, and switch to organic and more locally and regionally produced
products. We must also rise up as a political movement and change public
policy. We must force the politicians and corporations to stop our
business-as-usual destruction of the climate and public health, and
move to an ethical and scientifically grounded policy and practice
that promotes health, conservation, greenhouse gas reduction, and organic
sequestration. Please join and support the OCA and the global organic
movement as we wage this epic struggle.

-Ronnie Cummins

The Myth of "Natural" Foods and Farming

Recent polls indicate that
many green-minded consumers are confused about the qualitative difference
between products labeled or advertised as "natural," versus those labeled
as organic.

Many believe that "natural" means "almost organic," or
that a natural product is even better than organic. What does certified
organic or "USDA Organic" mean? Certified organic means the
farmer or producer has undergone a regular inspection of its farm,
facilities, ingredients, and practices by an independent Third Party
certifier, accredited by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). The
producer has followed strict NOP regulations and maintained detailed
records. Synthetic pesticides, animal drugs, sewage sludge, GMOs, irradiation,
and chemical fertilizers are prohibited. Farm animals, soil, and crops
have been managed organically; food can only be processed with certain
methods; only allowed ingredients can be used.

On the other hand, what
does "natural" really mean, in terms of farming practices,
ingredients, and its impact on the environment and climate?

To put
it bluntly, "natural," in the overwhelming majority of cases
is meaningless, even though most consumers do not fully understand
this. Natural typically means conventional, with a green veneer. Natural
products are routinely produced using pesticides, chemical fertilizer,
hormones, genetic engineering, and sewage sludge. Natural or conventional
products - whether produce, dairy, or canned or frozen goods - are typically
produced on large industrial farms or in processing plants that are
highly polluting, chemical and energy intensive. "Natural," "all-natural," and "sustainable," products
in most cases are neither backed up by rules and regulations, nor a
Third Party certifier.

Companies selling so-called natural products
are simply telling us what we want to hear, so that we pay an organic
or premium price for a conventional product. Perhaps this wouldn't
matter that much if we were living in normal times, with a relatively
healthy population, environment, and climate. Conventional products
sold as natural or "nearly organic" would be a simple matter
of chicanery or consumer fraud. But we are not living in normal times.
Demanding that natural and conventional producers and vendors make
the transition to organic is a matter of life or death. And standing
in the way of making this great transition are not only Fortune 500
food and beverage corporations, Monsanto, and corporate agribusiness,
as we would expect, but the wholesale and retail giants in the organic
and natural products sector as well, UNFI (United Natural Foods) and
Whole Foods Market. Two thirds of all products sold by Whole Foods
and UNFI are "natural," not organic.

So don't be fooled. Buy certified
"USDA Organic" products today and every day. Your health and the health
of the planet are at stake.

OCA 2009 Campaigns: A New Hope for Change by Alexis Baden-Mayer

The year 2009 arrived with a bang: a new President and a new hope
for change. The OCA celebrated this moment of opportunity, but refused
to ignore the formidable obstacles to change, or to water down our
values.

Raising Hope on Inauguration Day

OCA's Washington, DC staff literally danced through the streets on
Inauguration Day, passing out OCA literature emblazoned with slogans
"Hope," "Change" and "Planting Peace" to the happy crowds. But January
20 proved to be just a temporary interlude in our ongoing struggle
to educate and pressure corporations and politicians to "do the right
thing" and green the planet. Our agenda since January has included
putting pressure on the organic industry to maintain strong organic
standards and pressuring President Obama and the Congress to help support
and expand organic food and farming and stop using our tax money to
subsidize chemical farming and GMOs (genetically modified organisms).

Campaigning for Organic Gardens

OCA members sent thousands of emails in support of First Lady Michelle
Obama's organic garden at the White House, as well as the USDA's People's
Garden on the National Mall. President Obama's repeated references
to local, organic agriculture in his speeches on agriculture and health
care, and his pro-organic appointments to the USDA and the National
Organic Standards Board represent significant victories directly attributable
to the OCA and our allies raising our collective voices.

Influencing Obama's USDA Appointments

Even our losses were offset to a certain degree. We sent 100,000 letters
to Obama opposing Tom Vilsack's appointment as USDA Secretary. Although
Vilsack temporarily withdrew his name from the nomination, we ultimately
failed to block the confirmation of a man who has served as a cheerleader
for genetic engineering and factory farming. However, the outrage demonstrated
by organic consumers over Vilsack's controversial appointment, according
to informed sources in Washington, is undoubtedly one of the reasons
why Obama appointed a strong organic advocate, Kathleen Merrigan, as
Deputy Secretary or second in command at the USDA.

It's clear that Tom Vilsack could feel the heat of OCA members looking
over his shoulder as he made the Obama Administration's first appointments
to the National Organic Standards Board. In past years, the OCA has
had to protest NOSB appointees who represented big businesses with
small stakes in organic. But Vilsack's are the best NOSB appointments
in recent memory. The new members of the National Organic Standards
Board include Jay Feldman of Beyond Pesticides (an OCA Advisory Board
member), Joe Dickson of Whole Foods, Annette Riherd (a family farmer
growing organic fruits and vegetables who is a long-time buy-local-and-organic
advocate), Wendy Fulwider of Organic Valley and John Foster of Earthbound
Farms.

Court Victory on GE Sugar Beets

G rassroots pressure by the OCA and litigation by our allies has finally
brought about significant results on the Genetic Engineering front.
In September, there was a major legal victory against genetically engineered
(GE) sugar beets. The Center for Food Safety proved in federal court
that the government's approval of Monsanto's GE sugar beets was illegal.
In the ruling, the judge acknowledged that the "genetic pollution"
of GE threatened to deprive farmers of their choice to grow non-GE
crops and deprived consumers of their right to eat non-GE food.

Monsanto
and the sugar industry aren't going to throw in the towel just yet.
American Crystal Sugar, the nation's largest sugar beet processor,
is still pro-GE. American Crystal President David Berg told the New
York Times he thought customer acceptance of GE sugar was "a big
non-event." In response, the OCA initiated a boycott of GE-tainted
sugar. As of early October, over 35,500 organic consumers had let American
Crystal know they were joining the boycott.

Congressional Support for Organic

The profile of the Organic Caucus is growing in Congress. Legislators
are raising the concerns of the organic community more vocally. In
July, the House of Representatives voted on food safety legislation
that would have unfairly penalized organic and small farmers. As organic
consumers opposed H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act, the first
vote failed because it was unable to secure the support of House Members
concerned about the impact of industrial techno-fixes on organic, small-scale
and local farmers.

The bill wasn't able to pass until Organic Caucus
Chair Sam Farr secured a promise from bill sponsor Rep. Dingell that
the bill wouldn't create conflicts with the National Organic Program,
would consider the needs of small farms, organic practices and conservation
methods, and "not harm farming practices that have existed for centuries
with minimal documented health risk." The fight has moved to the
Senate.

Keeping Organic Standards Strong

This November, the National Organic Standards Board will consider
three strong recommendations to the USDA, put forward by OCA and our
allies. The recommendations would direct the USDA to stop personal
care and cosmetic companies from advertising their products as "organic" unless
they are USDA certified, keep nanotechnology out of organic, and improve
the living conditions of organic poultry and livestock. So far, nearly
24,000 organic activists have sent letters to the NOSB in support of
these recommendations.

Exposing the Myth of So-Called Natural Products

For the past six months OCA has turned up the heat on organic and
natural product brands, retailers, and wholesalers, especially Whole
Foods Market and UNFI, demanding that they all walk their talk and
stop substituting conventional ingredients for organic ingredients
in what were formerly certified organic products; stop pretending that
cheaper conventional foods and products greenwashed or labeled as "natural"
(which represent 2/3 of the sales of WFM and UNFI) are "almost organic"
or almost as good as organic; and stop buying and selling conventional
body products and cosmetics containing synthetic chemicals and petrochemical
derivatives that call themselves organic on the front label, but which
are not certified.

Vía Orgánica: OCA's Sister Organization in Guanajuato, Mexico

V iá Orgánica (The Organic Way) is OCA's sister organization in Mexico.
The Via Organica (VO) headquarters are located on a beautiful 20 acre
organic farm and eco-tourism center in the central highlands of Mexico,
seven miles from picturesque San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, nestled
between two UNESCO World Heritage sites. Utilizing its farm, farm school,
organic retail and wholesale business, website, agro-eco tours, and
bilingual newsletters, Via Organica's mission is to promote organic
food and farming, Fair Trade, and local green economic development
in Mexico and Latin America, in the process strengthening OCA's ability
to deal with cross-border and global issues.

Via Organica is poised to strengthen the growing organic farming movement
in Mexico. Through modern water conservation techniques, heirloom seed
saving strategies, rural economic development models, Via Organica's
farm school is training hundreds of campesinos (small farmers) every
month. The primary goal of Via Organica's farm school is to empower
and assist small farmers in preserving their food heritage and making
the transition to organic.

Part of Via Organica's mission is to create practical, successful
business models for Mexican small farmers and businesses. To this end,
Via Organica operates a full-line organic food store and cafe in downtown
San Miguel de Allende, selling local and regional organic products,
some of which are grown on the Via Organica ranch. VO is also building
up an organic wholesale business, linking together organic farmers
markets, producers, retail stores, and restaurants across Mexico.

The VO store or tienda in San Miguel is a model of small business
profitability, as well as a testament to the growing demand in Mexico
for healthy, fresh organic food and green products. In addition, Via Organica's farm school, which is located at the ranch and eco-tourism
center, offers regular, well-attended workshops on organic farming
and permaculture for hundreds of campesinos (small farmers) throughout
the region. Workshops have included hands-on demonstrations of organic
composting, pest control, soil analysis, marketing, and food nutrition.

To overcome the high costs of organic certification for small farmers
and producers, VO is working with local and regional groups to develop
a low-cost system of community-controlled organic certification, called
Certification Participativa. Other VO projects include community nutrition
classes, educational radio programs, working with schools and hospitals,
a summer youth camp, and a campaign to convert a number of roadside
or street taco stands into healthy, inexpensive organic "fast food"
outlets.

To finance our work and spread our message, OCA and VO sponsor seven-day
organic Eco-Tours every month, bringing US organic consumers and farmers
to Mexico for a first hand look at the organic movement there. These
educational tours provide insight into the struggles and successes
of Mexican organic farmers, consumers, and rural activists, who are
challenged by enormous problems including NAFTA and corporate "free
trade," industrial farming, climate change, and the "Wal-Mart-ization"
of their economy.

An inspiring highlight of our tours is a trip to the Center for Economic
Development and Sustainable Agriculture (CEDESA) in Dolores Hidalgo,
a dynamic community organizing project that has been working with poor
farmers for over 40 years to help them become self-sufficient using
traditional organic farming and grassroots permaculture or appropriate
technology techniques. The CEDESA site and farms include rooftop rainwater
catchment systems, water-free composting toilets, organic vegetable,
fruit, cactus, and medicinal herb gardens, beehives, and low-input
outdoor stoves and ovens.

OCA and Via Organica extend a cordial invitation to organic consumers,
gardeners, and farmers in the US to sign up for one of our bilingual
escorted tours and visit us in beautiful sunny Mexico for your winter
vacation. Tours are led by OCA Director, Ronnie Cummins. Tax-deductible
donations to the OCA can be earmarked for our Mexico educational programs.

For further info or to sign up for a Via Organica monthly tour, please
contact the OCA national office at 218-226-4164, or read our eco-tour
information on the OCA
Tours Page, or at ViaOrganica.org,
Via Organica's Spanish language website.

by Molly Blakemore

A Message From the Director

Greetings from the staff and volunteers of the Organic Consumers Association.

As I write this letter, the papers, TV, and the internet are all broadcasting
non-stop bad news about the climate crisis, war, deteriorating public
health, and what is now called the Great Recession.

On World Food Day,
global hunger organizations reminded us that a billion people across
the globe are malnourished or starving, while two billion more, mainly
small farmers and rural villagers, are living in extreme poverty. Meanwhile,
public health advocates continue to decry the fact that a full two-thirds
of the residents in our Fast Food Nation are either obese or overweight.
Agronomists warn of impending crop failures and a serious decrease
in global grain reserves. With a destabilized climate and weird weather
now routine, it seems almost normal that Minnesota's autumn fall colors
have been cut short by an early snow. Our Via Organica staff in Mexico
tell us that the region's farmers are going through the worst drought in
50 years, with corn and bean crops seriously stunted.

Mother Nature and
our billions of brothers and sisters down the block and around the
world are obviously trying to tell us something: it's time for a change,
big change. The "change" that the new administration promised us in January,
opposed every step of the way by powerful special interests and lobbyists,
has turned out to be, at least so far, small change.

Out-of-control
corporations, indentured scientists, Wall Street banksters, and politicians
seem perfectly content to maintain business as usual, no matter the
cost - even if the cost is human survival.

It's time for a change. We are
the organic grassroots force that can save the planet. We are the
antidote to hopelessness and fatalism. We are the messengers of hope. We
are fortunate to have a practical organic solution to offer for the climate
crisis, a solution which has the power to resolve our public health and
economic crisis as well.

But let us not talk falsely now. There is no time
to lose. The hour is getting late.

We need your help more than ever
to broadcast our message and mobilize the grassroots around OCA's
life-affirming, positive message: organic food and farming and ethical
green living are the practical solution to our crisis. 85 percent of our
funds come from individuals like you, our grassroots supporters. Please
use the enclosed reply envelope to send us a tax-deductible donation.

Thank you so
much for your support.

Regards & Solidarity,
Ronnie Cummins, OCA National Director

Craig Minowa, OCA's Multi-Talented Editor Moving On

After eight years of tireless and magnificent work, Craig Minowa,
OCA's environmental scientist and editor, and our resident musical
genius, is moving on to focus full-time on other duties. Craig's
all-green music company, Earthology Records, and band, Cloud Cult
www.cloudcult.com, have become so popular that he can no longer
afford to divide his time between OCA and the music world. In addition,
Craig and his wife Connie (a former field organizer with the OCA)
are celebrating the birth of their new baby boy, Nova, on October
2.

Craig has served as OCA's point person on scientific matters, with
a special emphasis on pesticides, toxic chemicals, body care products,
and children's health. He has left his knowledgeable imprint, positive
outlook, and sense of humor on OCA's electronic newsletter, Organic
Bytes, over the past decade, and is a major reason why we've grown
to 250,000 subscribers and become a powerful voice for organics
and Fair Trade in the US. We will sorely miss Craig, but we're happy
he'll be carrying our green and organic message to an even larger
audience with his music and vocal skills. So thank you Craig for
all you've done, and thanks in advance for all the good work and
artistic inspiration that lies ahead.

Although Craig is a very difficult act to follow, we welcome another
young resident staff genius, Alexis Baden-Mayer, OCA's Washington,
DC lobbyist, coalition builder, and lawyer, as the new editor-in-chief
of Organic Bytes.

OCA's Political Work & Philosophy: Planting Peace and Democracy

The 2008 election promised us "change" in 2009, but beyond small
change we haven't yet seen the sweeping changes needed to move us away
from climate chaos, economic meltdown, war, injustice, deteriorating
public health, and the growing gap between rich and poor.

An
organic future is unlikely if the US continues to spend billions of
dollars waging war, in a profoundly misguided quest for oil and a so-called
"war on terrorism." We have endured eight years of war in Afghanistan
and, while the president has promised to eventually withdraw from Iraq,
he continues to describe Afghanistan as the "good war." In this era
of climate crisis and diminishing energy, water, and food supplies,
we need to be planting peace, not waging war. As US forces contaminate
the Afghan countryside with depleted uranium, the possibility of this
third-poorest nation in the world being able to feed itself in the
future is rapidly diminishing. Meanwhile, along with other war profiteers,
Monsanto has landed like a vulture in Iraq and Afghanistan to take
advantage of new laws protecting the rights of corporations to patent
and control seeds and food. www.organicconsumers.org/plantingpeace/

GNA

The
Organic Consumers Fund's Grassroots
Netroots Alliance project
is working to create a healthy organic future that embodies the interrelated
principles of health, justice, sustainability, peace, and democracy.
We support holistic health care, access to health care for all; fair
trade for farmers in the Global South, and labor rights for US workers.
We also support an organic transition in agriculture, as well as a
transition from fossil fuels in energy; the legalization of raw milk,
industrial hemp and marijuana; an accounting of Bush's crimes and Obama's
bailouts; and an end to the corporate control of politics and the media. www.
grassrootsnetroots.org

Member Comments

Your work is invaluable- increasingly so as governments and their
corporate owners strive ever more feverishly to destroy the planet
and all its inhabitants in the name of $$$$$. I'm proud to be one of
your supporters. Thank you. -Carol in NY

The best online environmental newsletter I receive, info I don't find
anywhere else! -Karen in MN

Love what you are doing, building a path to a happier, healthier world.
Thank you. -Bruce in WA

Keep up the good reporting on Monsanto and all the other important
consumer/citizen must-knows. Gracias. Y felicidades con Via Organica!
-Georgeann in MS

Thank you for the work you do. I really rely on your newsletter to
keep me abreast of current happenings and to take action when important
issues arise. -Marilyn in IL

OCA is doing great work, terribly important to our (possible) survival.
Wish we could afford to send more. Thanks so much for your independence,
grit, and sanity. -Ken in TX

Thanks for the work you do. I look forward to your newsy email newsletter.
It is about the only thing from an organization that I don't automatically
delete. -Sharon in OR

Bravo for all the great work! Your organization is so needed right
now. -Alice in OR

You all are the best! Keep fighting for us. I "love" your
email distributions. In quotes because the news is often scary, but
obviously important to know. I support OCA's inherent moralism, to
keep pushing our government into fostering the best ecology for the
most people. Government by the people, for the people. -Colin in CA

Thanks for all you do. We appreciate all of your hard work on the
behalf of a healthy America. -Bernie and Sandy in NC

Your newsletter is incredibly informative and real. No need for hype,
just give the facts. You should be converting folks to organic by the
zillions! -Teresa, CA

Thanks so much for your work gleaning and spreading information, and
advocating for safe and sustainable food production. You enable many
of us who are working locally for the same goals to be much more effective
and active in a wider arena than we would otherwise have much access
to. Thanks! -Margaret in VA

Thank you so much for doing the work you do! You are a huge resource
for the education I pass onto our cancer patients. Many of your articles
are the meat to a handout I will create for them! Thank you... thank
you... I wish I had lots of money to give to you and support your passion!
-Suzanne in CA

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